APPLE AND PEAR MARKETINCU

Evening Post, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 120, 17 November 1942, Page 4

APPLE AND PEAR MARKETINCU

i < ■■ ■ , . ■ ~>,».; Without' the Internal MarketM':,; Division the organised marketing ox, - the entire apple crop over the whole: ." of the Dominion could* not have been successfully undertaken on a basis that protected the economic interests of the grower and also enabled the'consumers to enjoy all the fruit as it became available, said the Minister of Marketing (Mr. Barclay) last night. He said that the main harvesting period for apples and pears was very short;,, within 10 weeks 85 per cent, of the-/;-total crop wa,s sold by* the growers^..,, the Department. Cool storage, space, said the Minister, was available for only one-third of the crop, and the remaining two-thirds had to be, sold rapidly to avoid waste. This year the Department placed on the market 2,109,000 cases of fruit which, for every man, woman, and child in the Doming ion, meant an average of over 521b of apples for the year. Because of the loss of the export market the total crop, of graded fruit was made available to. the public of New Zealand. This meant that the public were receiving almost twice as much fruit now as they received in the years before the war. With such a huge quantity of good fruit being placed on the market each year, it would be realised what a bad policy it would be to ask the public to eat windfalls and under-grade fryit as well. This fruit had legitimate use in providing the raw materials tot manufacturing apple pulp, jam. atKl other products. For five months of tne year,' from March" to July, the public received three-quarters of the fruit U 3s 6d a case below cost, ;and for the remaining period wholesale and retail prices were maintained at reasonable levels.